EA Sports' urban American football game spawns a bone-crunching, tarmac-scraping, wall-smacking sequel

Try as we might, many of us will never attain the giddy heights of professional American Football stardom and play in the glittering stadia of the world. However, there's little to stop us showing off our sporting prowess in our local neighbourhood and that's exactly what NFL Street 2 brings to your PS2. Rival urban gangs face off across the litter and burning barrels of America's inner-city sprawl, each hungry to tear through the opposition and gain the winning touchdown.

The locations may be grey, but the entertainment is far from dull with American Football rising above the limits of a simulation and integrating out-of-this-world moves and abilities. Leap up to 15 feet in the air and bounce of the wall to make spectacular catches, passes and endzone dives. Hurdle over defenders and catch some air using the opposing linebacker as a springboard. American Football has never been so crazy.

Create your team from scratch and customise everything, from their clothing right down to the colour of their eyes, and take your team to the top of the urban game. Own the streets and you can even take your star player into the upcoming Madden NFL 2006.

Seven new game modes, including Crush the Carrier and Jump Ball Battles

New Own the City mode allows you to build a killer team, build a rep and take over turf until it's all yours

Rip up the backlot

NFL Street 2 puts the "ball" in football and leaves all the pain off the field.

Features

New game modes

Unlock NFL legends

High-flying style moves

New Gamebreaker system

Although the NFL plays in 31 cities, the players all come together for the action in Bay City, the home of NFL Street 2. Everybody thinks they can play ball and talk smak in the Bay City sandlots, but you're going to show them how to back up the smack with skills.

The biggest names in the NFL play some hard-hitting 7-on-7 ironman football. No pads. No flags. No clock. Excessive celebration encouraged. The only thing as important as the final score is how good you look racking up the points.

The multitude of game modes gives NFL Street 2 a tremendous amount of replay value. The three main game modes (Own the City, NFL Challenge and NFL Gauntlet) take you from humble beginnings on the vacant lots to the big time against the best of the best.

After you create a player, hip-hop artist Xzibit leads you through the game's tutorial before heading up one of the game's teams. After completing challenges and defeating opponents, you win developmental points to improve your players.

Flash with Your Dash

Style takes center stage on the street. High stepping and taunting is good; leaping off the wall to make a catch or throw a pass is even better. You earn serious points for the flash you perform. Those points raise the Gamebreaker meter.

Once your meter is full, activate it. If you're on defense, you'll force a fumble when you hit your opponent. On offense, the defense has a small chance of stopping you from scoring a touchdown.

Because of the speed of the game, pulling off style moves poses a challenge. However, with only 14 guys on the field, you can rack up major style points if you can catch a pass past the defense or break a few tackles through the line.

Pitching the ball plays a major part of gameplay as well. If you see one of your men trailing behind, chuck him the rock. The play's not over until the whistle blows.

The game never calls offsides on defenders, so feel free to jam the line and tap buttons to make a charge at the QB.

You're the Coach

NFL Street 2 comes packed with a full complement of plays, from West Coast passing to option runs and play-action trickery. Calling audibles is a, um, snap. Audible on defense if you're sure you know what kind of play you think the offense will call: run, pass or trick.

As you rack up the wins and perfect your moves, you unlock some of the legends of the game, including Mean Joe Greene, Bo Jackson and Eric Dickerson. Make your own player into one of the NFL's elite and show the legends exactly who exactly is boss on the playground.

The game's flavor and flamboyance might turn off some hard-core football gamers, but they should really give this game a chance.

The nonstop action creams your football sense like it's a tackling dummy. The different game modes and the series of teams and challenges you need to beat to get to the top will have you playing for hours and hours. EA says you'll even have a chance to import the players you develop into Madden NFL 2006.

Bottom Line

NFL Street 2 is a dream for fans who don't take their football super-seriously.